Creating and Editing Custom Dictionaries in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Learn how to create and edit custom dictionaries in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Author:Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 and higher

Date Created: April 10, 2017Last Updated: April 10, 2017

Although PowerPoint provides a spelling dictionary which contains a list of all common words, you might be working on a particular project
that uses uncommon words not found in everyday language. You could
edit a custom dictionary or
load a ready-made third-party dictionary
within PowerPoint. But you can actually create your own dictionary that includes a set of words for a particular project. So, if you need to
do a legal presentation for a client once a year, you could create a separate dictionary for just this one project, and then edit it as
required within a text editor such as Notepad.

Follow these steps to create a new dictionary and edit it within Notepad:

Within the Custom Dictionaries dialog box, click the New button (highlighted in
red within Figure 3, above). This brings up the Create Custom Dictionary
dialog box with the default custom dictionary location, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Create Custom Dictionary dialog box

Provide a name to your new dictionary within the File name box. We named our new dictionary
legal-dictionary (highlighted in red within Figure 4 above). Navigate to the
location where you want to save the dictionary and click the Save button (highlighted in blue
within Figure 4 above).

The locations where you want to store the dictionaries depends on who you want to access it. To make the dictionary accessible to only the
current Windows user, store it in the default custom dictionary location:

If you don’t want to save in user-specific folders to make the dictionary accessible to all users of your PC, create a new folder anywhere
on your computer, and store dictionaries there.

This adds the new dictionary to the Dictionary List within the Custom Dictionaries dialog box as shown
highlighted in red within Figure 5.

Figure 5: New dictionary added to the Dictionary List

At this point of time, the new dictionary has no words added. To start adding words, you can click the Edit Word List button
(highlighted in blue within Figure 5 above). This process is explained within our
Edit Custom Dictionaries in PowerPoint 2016 for
Windows tutorial. If you have many words to add to the dictionary (probably you need to copy and paste a list of words you received from
a client within an email), you will prefer to edit the dictionary file manually within Notepad or any other text dictionary. Dictionary files
(*.DIC) are plain-text files.

Close any instances of PowerPoint, or any other Microsoft Office applications that may be accessing your new dictionary file. Then,
navigate to the folder containing your dictionary file using Windows Explorer, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: New dictionary file accessed within the windows explorer

Thereafter, run Notepad and then drag that file into the Notepad window. Since
our new dictionary does not contain any words as of now, you will see a blank text file, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: New dictionary file opened in Notepad

Start typing new words (or paste them from the source you copied). Make sure you save the text file often. Figure 8 shows
the same dictionary with some words added (compare
Figures7 and 8).

Figure 8: New dictionary with words added

Since this new dictionary is already loaded into PowerPoint, you will find that any new words you added to the dictionary are no longer
flagged as misspelled. Also do remember that all loaded dictionaries are shared by all Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.

Have your ever used keyboard shortcuts and sequences in PowerPoint? Or are you a complete keyboard aficionado?
Do you want to learn about some new shortcuts? Or do you want to know if your favorite keyboard shortcuts are documented?